Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Brown will return to Washington and resume his duties as head of FEMA, where he will concentrate on making sure the agency is prepared to deal with other potential disasters.

"We cannot afford to let our guard down, " Chertoff said at a brief news conference at FEMA's new Baton Rouge headquarters to announce the change of command.

Brown is being replaced by Coast Guard Vice Admiral Thad Allen, who had been leading the hurricane recovery effort in New Orleans. In a sign of how quickly the change of command was made, Allen said he was informed of his promotion at 10 a.m. Friday.

Chertoff praised the embattled director. "Mike Brown has done everything he possibly could to coordinate the federal response to this unprecedented disaster, " Chertoff said.

Chertoff refused to address questions about Brown's future at the agency or comment on reports in Time and Newsweek that Brown had padded parts of his resume.

Brown, who stood alongside Chertoff, Allen and Lt. Gen. Russel Honore at the news conference, did not take questions from reporters. "I am going to answer the questions, " Chertoff said, before declining to address questions about whether Brown planned to resign from his post.

Chertoff said the move comes as FEMA is entering a new phase in the recovery effort. Although search-and-rescue remains a top priority for the agency, Chertoff said the agency now is spearheading an effort to recover the bodies of those who died as a result of the storm.

"I want to have the people who are present here on the ground" able to focus their full attention on what needs to be done, " Chertoff said.

Chertoff pledged that the body-recovery process will be handled with "dignity" and said it would be one of the agency's top priorities as the search-and-rescue effort winds down. "We are going to work as effectively and expeditiously as possible" to recover and identify bodies and notify family members of the deceased, Chertoff said.

Honore said rescuers are finding fewer people to evacuate, but that efforts are still under way to locate people who have been in the New Orleans area since the storm struck and want to be brought to shelter. "The city is still under a mandatory evacuation, " he said. "(But) right now we're focusing on those that do want to leave."

The general said there will be no media access granted to the body-recovery effort.

Allen did not say whether he planned to make any changes to the way the recovery effort is run. He said he first planned to meet with his new staff before launching into his new duties.